Coolify self-hosted: your own deploy platform on a VPS you control

What you get when you host Coolify yourself

You get a dashboard that turns a server into your own deploy button. Coolify is an open-source platform-as-a-service: you point it at your code in Git, at a Dockerfile or Compose file, or at an image someone already built, and it builds and runs the result as Docker containers on your machine.

• Your apps, redeployed from Git whenever you want.
• Databases with their data kept on disk and backups you can schedule.
• Ready-made services from a catalogue of templates, such as workflow tools. If n8n is all you need, it also comes as an app of its own.
• Web addresses that just work: a built-in proxy (Traefik unless you switch to Caddy) sends each domain to the right app and gets each one a free certificate from Let's Encrypt, renewed automatically, once the domain points at the server and you enter it with https:// in front.

Hosting it yourself means you also look after it. The Coolify docs are plain about this: it does not patch your server or manage its security, so updates to the operating system, SSH and firewall rules stay your job.

How big should the server be?

Start at 2 cores and 2 GB of memory, which is the minimum in Coolify's own install guide, and go up as you add apps. That floor only covers Coolify. Each app, each database and each build sits on top of it, and the docs warn that running builds next to Coolify on a small box can make the whole server stop responding.

The two smallest sizes, 1 GB and 2 GB, come with one vCPU each, below Coolify's stated minimum. They can still be useful if every image is built somewhere else first and Coolify only has to start it. If you outgrow your size, support moves you up. Expect a single reboot; your files and IP addresses stay as they were.

The quickest start: Coolify as a ready-made app

Choose Coolify on the order page and the machine does the setup on its first start, at no extra cost. It runs on Ubuntu 24.04, gets a secure address of its own under vmapps.net, and keeps your admin password in a root-only file on the machine (/root/app-credentials.txt). We never see that password.

1. Pick a size with at least 2 vCPUs, and Coolify as the app. Add your SSH key if you have one.
2. Pay the first invoice. The machine is built on its own, usually within a couple of minutes, and you get an email.
3. Watch the Virtual Machines tab in your dashboard until it shows the app is ready.
4. Log in over SSH, read the password from the credentials file and sign in to Coolify at the address it was given.
5. Add your first app from Git. Coolify's proxy already listens on ports 80 and 443 for it.

Prefer to install it by hand?

You can, on a clean machine running Debian, an Ubuntu LTS release, Rocky Linux or AlmaLinux. Coolify's team suggests starting clean, so no other program is already sitting on its ports. Log in as root (or a sudo user) and run the official script:

curl -fsSL https://cdn.coollabs.io/coolify/install.sh | bash

When it finishes, it prints a link ending in :8000. Open it and create your admin account straight away. Until you do, the first person to load that page becomes the admin, and the admin effectively has root on your server. Then save a copy of /data/coolify/source/.env somewhere other than the server: it holds the key that unlocks the passwords Coolify stores.

On Ubuntu, stick to an LTS release. If Docker was installed as a snap, remove it before running the script.

The doors it needs open

Coolify needs SSH plus web traffic in. While you reach the dashboard by IP address it uses three more ports; once it sits behind your own domain, those can be shut.

If you lock yourself out with a firewall mistake, the console in your dashboard opens the machine's screen in your browser, so you can undo it without SSH.

Keeping it running without surprises

• Turn on instance backups under Settings > Backup; Coolify then backs itself up daily. That covers its projects and settings only, so back up your app data and databases as well, and keep copies off the server.
• Choose how it updates under Settings > Updates. By default Coolify checks for a new version every hour and, once automatic updates are switched on, installs them daily at midnight. The dashboard goes offline for under a minute while an update installs. Your apps are not touched.
• Move heavy builds elsewhere once they slow things down: build images in CI, for example on a self-hosted runner, and let Coolify just pull them.
• Sending email: ports 465 and 587 are open from day one; port 25 stays closed until you ask us to open it.

A comforting detail from the docs: your apps are ordinary Docker containers, so if Coolify itself goes down they keep serving. You only lose the dashboard and new deploys until it is back.

When you will want a whole server instead

A Cloud VPS shares its physical server with other customers, and processor time is shared too. That is fine for a small platform. If your builds keep every core busy, a database needs more disk speed than the biggest size allows, or you send more traffic than the monthly allowance, a dedicated server is the better home: every core is yours and the port is unmetered. Coolify can manage that machine over SSH from the instance you already have.

Questions people ask

Do I pay anything for the Coolify app?

No. Coolify is one of the free ready-made apps on the Cloud VPS. You only pay for the machine, and you can switch to the app later with a reinstall, which wipes the disk.

Is the smallest VPS enough for Coolify?

Not really. Coolify's minimum is two cores and 2 GB of memory, and the two smallest sizes have one vCPU. The 4 GB size is the first that meets it, and the 8 GB one is more comfortable if you build on the server.

Can I install Coolify on Windows?

No, Coolify only runs on Linux, and the Cloud VPS offers Linux only anyway: Rocky Linux, AlmaLinux, Debian or Ubuntu. All four appear on Coolify's list of supported systems.

Will Coolify keep my server patched?

No. It updates itself if you let it, but the operating system and its security are yours to look after. Run your distribution's updates as you would on any server.

What should I back up?

Three things: Coolify's own instance backup, the data of your apps and databases, and the .env file in /data/coolify/source. Without that file's key, a restored Coolify cannot read the secrets it saved.